Re: [Audyssey] games we'd like to play: circus charlie
Firstly, as I have never created a game, I'll say that what is below are just thoughts. Here goes: In the first stage Charlie rides on the back of a lion and must jump through rings of fire. The difficulty here is to center Charlie so he could jump through the rings without being burned. As far as accessibility goes providing realistic sounds would be no problem. The problem would be in trying to come up with a way to make sure Charlie is centered in the ring and to guide him through the ring without being burned. It was not easy to do when someone could see it, and it would be even trickier to do using only audio. Thought: If Charlie is riding straight toward the ring, I would think that all you would have to do is to make sure that the sound is centered in your speakers or headset for enough time to indicate that you are riding in the right direction. As for when to jump, how about a clicking indicator or a rise in pitch, and you either count clicks or jump at the highest pitch. With practice, it may be possible. In stage 2 Charlie has to walk or run along a tightrope with monkeys constantly trying to knock him off. The idea here was to jump over the monkeys or avoid them knocking Charlie off the tightrope. As far as access goes once again coming up with sounds is no problem. My biggest concern with access is jumping over the monkeys. When you jump over the monkeys you had to see where the tightrope was to land on it else poor Charlie went splat on the ground. So knowing where to land on the tightrope was crucial to that stage. Thought: If the tight rope is tight enough, would it stay stable? Jumping over the monkeys would be a matter of timing. As long as you jump straight forward, it might not be a problem. In stage 4 is the rolling balls you mentioned. They are basically huge rubber balls, like giant beach balls of different colors, that Charlie has to jump from ball to ball. The trick here is the balls are constantly rolling, constantly moving, making them hard to land on and you can't stand on them long before Charlie gets flattened by the ball he happens to be standing on. Accessibility wise I have to do some thinking about this one. Representing the balls themselves in audio is no problem. The problem is there is no way to accurately represent the various angles as the ball turns to let you know when to jump and where you landed on the ball etc. That particular stage relied heavily on hand and eye coordination, and isn't suitable for an audio representation that I can see here. Thought: Sounds like a form of log rolling. Staying on top of a rolling ball would be timing. Maybe the speed of the roll is controled by Charlie? Not sure about how to determine the status and direction that other balls are in relation to the ball that Charlie is currently on, though. Maybe each ball makes a ticking sound, and you could center that sound in your sound field for aiming the jump's direction? Stage five is not as you described it in your message. Charlie is doing some bareback riding on a horse not a donkey. Charlie jumps from the back of the horse onto a trampoline, flips over, and then back onto the horse. Later in that stage Charlie on horseback jumps walls and other obstructions. I suppose from an accessibility standpoint this stage could be done in audio. My concern is trying to identify when Charlie bounces into the air and how to time his bounce so he will land on the horse correctly. Again another one of those things that required hand and eye coordination. Thought: This might be one of those times when practice makes perfect. He would hit the trampoline and bounce. To jump forward might be done with a combination of keystrokes, for instance, the up arrow and the space bar. If the sound of the horse were directly in front of you, and the space bar were held for the right length of time, you would land on the horse's back. Maybe, as an audio cue, the horse could rhythmically neigh? --- Be positive! When it comes to being defeated, if you think you're finished, you! really! are! finished! - Original Message - From: Thomas Ward thomasward1...@gmail.com To: Gamers Discussion list gamers@audyssey.org Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 7:13 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] games we'd like to play: circus charlie Hi Nicol, A few thoughts, comments, and corrections here. While you did a fairly decent job of describing the game I did notice some mistakes, and also wanted to point out some things you missed. I certainly don't hold it against you since I know you could not see the game, and probably base your descriptions on what you have been told rather than firsthand experience. To begin with yes Circus Charlie was for the original Nintendo Entertainment system. While the original Nintendo is no longer available any more commercially Circus Charlie is available for newer Nintendo platforms. I do know for sure it is available for the Nintendo DS as part
[Audyssey] games we'd like to play: circus charlie
HI all For those of you who are looking for a new game idea, especially now that bgt is freeware, there is a game I would very much like to play. Its called circus charlie. It might be a nintendo game; I'm not sure. I played this game as a kid on a small console connected to a television set with the help of my sighted friends. I no longer have this console. My mom gave it away accidentally and I can no longer find such a console in south african shops. I doubt if the original game was a side scroller but I think for bgt the easiest way to code it might be to make it a side scroller. The game had 5 stages. In stage1 the player is standing on the back of a lion and must jump across fiery pots and fiery rings. In stage2 the player is running on a rope high in the air. The player must jump across monkeys walking on the rope. The monkeys will try their best to knock the player off the rope, especially an occasional big blue monkey. In stage3 the player have to jump from ball to ball. AS far as I can remember, these are huge balls. They are like gymnastic balls and they are colored. The color does not affect game play . its simply eye candy. The ball on which the player stands is rolling quickly and then the player must make it onto the next ball before the ball on which the player stands rolls from underneath him and knocks him to the ground. In stage4 the player is standing on the back of a donkey and must jump onto a trampoline as soon as the donkey passes the trampoline. Once on the trampoline the player must then again jump back onto the donkey's back once the donkey passes the trampoline. When the player doesn't make it onto the trampoline in time the donkey will throw the player off his back. If the player does not jump onto the donkey's back in time the trampoline will throw the player onto the ground. Then the pattern repeats until the end of the stage. In stage5 the player is on a high swing like a trapeze. IN circus charlie this swing goes up and down like a normal swing. Then the player have to jump onto a trampoline as soon as the trampoline is right underneeth the swing. Else the swing will throw the player onto the ground. Once on the trampoline the player have to jump back onto the swing else the trampoline might throw the player to the ground. I'm not sure how easy this would be to code with bgt. What concerns sounds, I think the sounds of donkeys and a fire sound for the pots and rings would hopefully not be too difficult to get from the web. Also it would hopefully be easy to get monkey sounds from the web for stage2. For the balls in stage3 the best sound would be a sound similar to the rolling ball sound in ten pin alley. This too hopefully shouldn't be too difficult to find on the web. And I think a sound for the donkey would hopefully be quite easy to get from the web too. And for the trampolines and swing screeching sounds would fit. I think circus charlie would fit into the arcade category. The player does not always run to the right. Sometimes the player have to run to the left. AS far as I can remember, from playing circus charlie with sighted friends years ago, the player runs a bit to the right, jump across objects and then runs a bit to the left and again jump and so on. Bfn Nicol --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] games we'd like to play: circus charlie
Hi Nicol, A few thoughts, comments, and corrections here. While you did a fairly decent job of describing the game I did notice some mistakes, and also wanted to point out some things you missed. I certainly don't hold it against you since I know you could not see the game, and probably base your descriptions on what you have been told rather than firsthand experience. To begin with yes Circus Charlie was for the original Nintendo Entertainment system. While the original Nintendo is no longer available any more commercially Circus Charlie is available for newer Nintendo platforms. I do know for sure it is available for the Nintendo DS as part of the Konami Classics series. So if you want to replace your copy of the game perhaps that is an option for you. As far as stages and levels goes I believe there were actually six not five stages to complete in the original Circus Charlie game. Each stage was broken down into seven levels that Charlie had to complete before he could move onto the next stage. This style of arcade game is known as a platformer, but its more or less what we think of as side-scrollers today. In the first stage Charlie rides on the back of a lion and must jump through rings of fire. The difficulty here is to center Charlie so he could jump through the rings without being burned. As far as accessibility goes providing realistic sounds would be no problem. The problem would be in trying to come up with a way to make sure Charlie is centered in the ring and to guide him through the ring without being burned. It was not easy to do when someone could see it, and it would be even trickier to do using only audio. In stage 2 Charlie has to walk or run along a tightrope with monkeys constantly trying to knock him off. The idea here was to jump over the monkeys or avoid them knocking Charlie off the tightrope. As far as access goes once again coming up with sounds is no problem. My biggest concern with access is jumping over the monkeys. When you jump over the monkeys you had to see where the tightrope was to land on it else poor Charlie went splat on the ground. So knowing where to land on the tightrope was crucial to that stage. Stage 3 was even trickier. Charlie had to jump from trampoline to trampoline while knife throwers tried to hit him with thrown knives and fire breathers tried to scorch him with fire from their mouths. From an accessibility standpoint I actually find this one easy enough to do purely from audio. I recall the mainstream version was pretty challenging, but since everything here should have an audio equal it might actually be possible to render a fairly accurate remake of that level purely in audio alone. In stage 4 is the rolling balls you mentioned. They are basically huge rubber balls, like giant beach balls of different colors, that Charlie has to jump from ball to ball. The trick here is the balls are constantly rolling, constantly moving, making them hard to land on and you can't stand on them long before Charlie gets flattened by the ball he happens to be standing on. Accessibility wise I have to do some thinking about this one. Representing the balls themselves in audio is no problem. The problem is there is no way to accurately represent the various angles as the ball turns to let you know when to jump and where you landed on the ball etc. That particular stage relied heavily on hand and eye coordination, and isn't suitable for an audio representation that I can see here. Stage five is not as you described it in your message. Charlie is doing some bareback riding on a horse not a donkey. Charlie jumps from the back of the horse onto a trampoline, flips over, and then back onto the horse. Later in that stage Charlie on horseback jumps walls and other obstructions. I suppose from an accessibility standpoint this stage could be done in audio. My concern is trying to identify when Charlie bounces into the air and how to time his bounce so he will land on the horse correctly. Again another one of those things that required hand and eye coordination. In stage 6 Circus Charlie is actually swinging from some trapeze not swings. Although, the stage is more or less as you described it. HTH On 7/10/14, Nicol nicoljaco...@telkomsa.net wrote: HI all For those of you who are looking for a new game idea, especially now that bgt is freeware, there is a game I would very much like to play. Its called circus charlie. It might be a nintendo game; I'm not sure. I played this game as a kid on a small console connected to a television set with the help of my sighted friends. I no longer have this console. My mom gave it away accidentally and I can no longer find such a console in south african shops. I doubt if the original game was a side scroller but I think for bgt the easiest way to code it might be to make it a side scroller. The game had 5 stages. In stage1 the player is standing on the back of a lion and must jump
